Cooking appliances generally define one or more enclosures supporting one or more heating elements. For instance, oven appliances can include a cabinet defining an insulated cooking chamber therein for receipt of food items for cooking. A cooktop having heating elements may be positioned at a top portion of the cabinet for, as an example, grilling, boiling, or frying food items thereon. Other heating elements, such as a bake heating element or broil heating element may be positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The bake heating element is positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber. The broil heating element positioned at a top of the cooking chamber. One or more electronic components may be housed within the cabinet outside of the cooking chamber.
During operation of such appliances, one or more heating elements may be energized (e.g., to heat the cooking chamber to a selected cooking temperature). Cooking appliances require features for managing the thermal energy generated by the various heating elements. For example, some appliances define an air plenum or passage between the cabinet and the insulated cooking chamber that houses the appliance controller or heating element junctions. In addition, side panels and other surfaces of oven appliances often require significant cooling to meet regulatory standards.
Therefore, certain cooking appliances include ventilation systems for managing the flow of heated air and regulating component temperatures. For example, a fan may be positioned within an oven appliance to continuously draw out heated air within the air plenum and replenish it with cooler ambient air, thereby cooling the controller or heating element junctions and the cabinet housing them.
In some instances, it may be useful to monitor certain conditions regarding the ventilation system, such as air temperature, air speed, fan rotation, etc. However the high-heat environment within the cabinet, as well as any exhaust particulate drawn from the cooking chamber, make it difficult to use various sensing elements (e.g., electronic sensors) within the ventilation system.
Accordingly, a cooking appliance that provides features for improved thermal management would be useful. More particularly, a cooking appliance having a ventilation system permitting the use of one or more sensing elements would be especially useful.